Weizmann Institute scientists identify a potential drug
molecule that stops cancer cells, but not healthy ones, from getting their
“mail”
(March 30, 2015) The
average living cell needs communication skills: It must transmit a constant
stream of messages quickly and efficiently from its outer walls to the inner
nucleus, where most of the day-to-day decisions are made. But this rapid,
long-distance communication system leaves itself open to mutations that can
give rise to a “spam attack” that promotes cancer. Prof. Rony Seger of the
Weizmann Institute's Biological Regulation Department and his team have now
proposed a method of shutting off the overflow of information before it can get
to the nucleus. If the initial promising results hold up, the method could be
used to treat a number of different cancers, especially several that develop
resistance to current treatments, and it might possibly induce fewer side effects
than those treatments do. These findings appeared today in Nature
Communications.